Philip Corner (b. 1933) studied composition with Henry Cowell and Otto Luening and musical analysis with Oliver Messiaen. During the 1960s and '70s he was an active member of Fluxus, a founder (along with James Tenney and Malcolm Goldstein) of the Tone Roads Chamber Ensemble, the resident musician and composer for the Judson Dance Theatre, and co-founder of Gamelan Son of Lion (with Barbara Benary and Daniel Goode).

Corner uses a variety of scoring methods, and in his word:"Along with that composition Les Barricades Mystérieuses by the Baroque composer François Couperin as my vehicle, I get through with the help of added enlightenments. Hence: 1. In a royal palace in Java there is an ancient gamelan with 3-notes which playes a single piece, with 3-notes, Moongang. We have also performed it with my gamelan group Son Of Lion in New York. A wonderful thing to anchor my tempermental extasy. 2. My Nigerian colleague at Livingston College in New Jersey introduced himself to me as Tony. What! I replied That's your slave-name… he replied: You are right. You may call me Chukwemeka (We settled on Emeka) Become great friends, his compliment: You are the only one here blessed with the gift of bi-culturality remains precious. By the time the thought&memory of him was in-sonor-ated into this improvisation, Dr. Nwabuoku had been back home, professor at Benin. But the drums were left in America. So i brought them into my piano, although we are not exactly in France. (This recording, at this time, In Memoriam. (Vale, Tony!). (1) Present and listening was Emily Harvey. We were in Italy. Cavriago, August 25, 1991. (2) In my office at Rutgers U. New Brunswick, October 25, 1991.